Latest News - 4th May 2006

Dear Mrs Machedon,

On behalf of the Executive Council of the International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA), I wish to express my deep sympathy on the death of Stefan Machedon.

We all knew, and greatly respected Stefan. He was a most interesting and engaging person to know and have as a friend.

His career in the Romanian Television Archive began in 1994, and Stefan had been part of FIATIFTA since he became Head of the Archive in 2000. His enthusiasm for progress in media archiving led him to join the FIAT/IFTA programme and production Commission.

His professional attitude to the business of media archive management was impressive, so we were very pleased to welcome him as a member of the Executive Council in 2004. He had begun to make a meaningful contribution when the illness struck, so we have missed his expertise.

His contribution to the world of media archiving is highly valued within FIAT/IFTA. He was multi talented : his designs for the programmes for our Paris and New-York conferences were intelligent and beautiful.

We send our heartfelt commiserations to you and your family. His death is a great loss to us all, however especially his family.

Sincerely yours,

Emmanuel HOOG, President of FIAT/IFTA

On behalf of Dominique Saintville (France), Peter Dusek (Austria), Branko Bubenik (Croatia), Steve Bryant (U.K), Wolfgang Dehn & Karl Maier (Germany), Alain Goossens (Belgium), Edwin Van Huis (Netherlands), Dan diPierro (USA), Sue Malden (UK), Roberto Rossetto (Italy), Henry Lindqvist (Finland), Mike Mashon (USA).

Dear Mrs Machedon,

I am the Chair of the Programme & Production Commission of the International Federation of Television Archives (FIATIFTA).On behalf of all the members of the Commission I want to express our sympathy to you and your family on the death of Stefan.

He was a relatively new, but a great member of our Commission. We all worked hard together in our various meetings in different parts of the world; but we also had time to enjoy ourselves and relax. So very quickly we all saw Stephan as a friend as well as a professional colleague. My son, Max, joined us on some of these occasions and Stefan and Max got on really well - Stefan telling him about his family and how proud he was of his son and daughter - he sent us photos and a video of his son playing football, so we all felt we knew you as well.

Stefan quickly made a positive contribution to the work of our Commission - always willing to express his views professionally and come up with new and innovative ideas, which enlivened the meetings! So we have missed him in recent months, but had tried to keep him involved through emails.

He was a very strong person - both physically and mentally - which I hoped helped him to deal with his cruel illness. We all admired the strength and determination with which he "got on with life".

We will all miss Stefan, but not as much as you, his family will - so our thoughts are with you at this painful time.

Sue Malden,

on behalf of Vit Charous (Czech Rep), Alicia Connessa (Spain), Brid Dooley (Ireland), Brigitte Rathsach (Denmark), Karl Maier(Germany), Roberto Rossetto (Italy), Dominique Saintville (France), Billy Segal (Israel), Ruth Stifter (Austria), Lieve van der Straeten (Belgium).